Looking for an epub3 reader that works in the new UI (formerly Metro) for windows 8. I have a new to me Acer w500 that I upgraded to Win8 Pro ($40) and now I want to find a reader for epub3 so I can experiment with creating this "new" form of interactive publication. I also want it for reading epub and maybe mobi books that I have on my Android tablet.

Why I don't want a desktop application - Because they don't respond to touch the same way that the apps for the new UI respond. I bought the w500 for the specific purpose of getting to grips with win8 since I decided I would never be happy learning the ins and outs without having touch support (tried it on a regular desktop computer). For what it is worth, I'm coming to grips pretty well now that I have touch and I really do like the speed over the stock win7 this tablet came with.

#2 Greg_E 12-12-2012, 09:28 PM

And the single rating on it is pretty low so I haven't tried it on my Android tablet.

#3 exscentric 12-14-2012, 10:30 PM

You might get surprised - disappointed, which ever. I downloaded the metro version of Kindle and it only holds 48 or so books before it refuses to download more. It is very iffy on whether it will run on my rig as well. About 50% of the time it would not start.

I downloaded the win 7 and installed it from desktop and it runs fine.

#4 Greg_E 12-15-2012, 02:42 PM

I only have a single Kindle book right now, most of my reading is PDF and a couple of epub or .doc converted to epub and most of that is still being done on my android tablet.

here is the funny thing -

I have an Acer Iconia a500 Android tablet and a new to me Acer Iconia w500 tablet. Using Aldiko to read PDF on the a500 and the "metro" version of Acrobat reader on the w500... The text is more readable on the a500 than on the w500 and I don't know why. they used the exact same display panel for both (same size and same resolution). I know it will take a while to get the few applications that I need onto the "metro" win8 tablet, but I would not have thought there would be display issues when reading documents. Hoping that the ereader writers will catch up soon so I can ditch the a500, there are a couple things that I've wanted to do that the a500 will not do well enough which helps push me to buying the w500 and win8 upgrade. One of those was the ability to run a real office suite, nit the low end stuff available for Android, and google docs is not always accessible since you need to be connected to use it for the things I wanted to do.

#5 HowGozit 01-13-2013, 03:43 AM

I'm using Freda as an ePub reader on my Win 8 tablet (Lenovo Twist) - and so far I am not really thrilled with it. Seems to work OK.. but... The long (16:9) screen doesn't really work in portrait mode - nor am I enthralled with the display of pages or fonts.

Kobo is supposed to read ePub3 - but lots of luck getting it to read sideloaded books.. I haven't figured out how yet. Microsoft aren't too keen on you digging into the Windows apps folder and have locked it down pretty hard.

#6 Greg_E 01-13-2013, 11:50 PM

Freda kept crashing on me so it is gone, haven't played with Kobo yet. And yes the data storage area for the new UI seems to be well hidden and protected, need to step around that sometime in the future when it matters. There are a couple that run in desktop mode but they lack full touch support.

#7 jhoff80 01-28-2013, 04:48 PM

Quote HowGozit

I'm using Freda as an ePub reader on my Win 8 tablet (Lenovo Twist) - and so far I am not really thrilled with it. Seems to work OK.. but... The long (16:9) screen doesn't really work in portrait mode - nor am I enthralled with the display of pages or fonts.

Kobo is supposed to read ePub3 - but lots of luck getting it to read sideloaded books.. I haven't figured out how yet. Microsoft aren't too keen on you digging into the Windows apps folder and have locked it down pretty hard.

The font rendering is horrible on Freda. I'm using Book Bazaar Reader at the moment, and I greatly prefer that, though it's not perfect either.

Anyway, you should be able to pretty easily get into the WindowsApps folder (found at C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\) if you change the permissions on it. Of course, make sure you have a backup first, because you can screw things up pretty majorly that way.

Anyway, that's just the program executable. For their data folders you want %localappdata%\Packages\. That is, for example, where the Nook app (which is also really buggy, in my experience) stores its epub files.